


Finding Delphine

by kcalbnahpro



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:57:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6720799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kcalbnahpro/pseuds/kcalbnahpro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An anonymous source helps Cosima uncover a series of clues that she believes will lead her to Delphine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.

One phone call. That's all it takes. One phone call from Sarah and everything goes south.

“You want me to do _what_?”

Scott stares, mouth agape, at Cosima. His eyes dart back and forth between the woman and the flashlight in her hand.

“I need you to take this and look in my mouth,” Cosima says, pushing the flashlight closer. She speaks the words slowly this time, and while she appears calm and collected on the surface, her eyes tell a different story. “Sarah’s bugged.”

“Ha. Ha. Very funny, Cosima,” Scott says with a nervous laugh. “Good one.”

He settles himself further into the couch, throws his hands behind his head, and squints up at Cosima. She doesn't move.

“Wait. You’re serious?”

Cosima falls onto the empty couch cushion next to him, her frail body hardly making a dip. She stares off, one hand still clutching the flashlight while the other traces along her jaw and cheek absentmindedly.

“She's got, like, a worm in her cheek or something,” Cosima says, twisting to face Scott on the couch. “She thinks we all might.”

At the revelation, Scott’s eyebrows raise so high, they nearly disappear under his flop of hair.

“Shit.”

“Yeah,” Cosima whispers. “Shit.”

The two sit on the coach for a beat before Scott reaches over and gently pries the flashlight from Cosima's hand.

“Come on, let's have a look. If you have this worm thing, then it'll just be another mystery we’ll add to the list.” Scott clicks the flashlight on and with a little shrug adds, “Frankly, things were getting a little too quiet around here anyway.”

Cosima laughs, the action leaving her frail body puffing for air.

“And if I don't?” she wheezes out after a moment. “If I'm not bugged?”

“Then I'm getting drunk and you’re getting high and we’re both putting this night behind us.” With a final nod he raises the flashlight. “Now open up.”

++++

“I don't see anything,” Scott says. He shines the flashlight in Cosima’s mouth and traces his fingers over her cheek, repeating the process on the other side. “Nope, nothing. I’d say you're bug free.”

He pulls the flashlight from her mouth and clicks it off.

“What about back behind the wisdom teeth?” Cosima asks.

Scott shakes his head, pulling the blue disposable lab gloves off his hands.

“Nothing,” he confirms. “No worm, everything looks normal. I think I even saw part of your lunch from earlier today.”

Cosima grins, smacking him lightly on the shoulder. She leans back into the couch and let's a long sigh escape her lips. Neither says anything for a long while.

Suddenly Cosima erupts in a fit of giggles.

“Is this what good news feels like?” she wonders aloud. “There's been so much doom and gloom lately, I've forgotten what it feels like.”

They let that sad truth wash over them.

“Hey, I believe we had a deal,” Scott says, interrupting the somber moment. “Good news means we celebrate.”

“You're right. A deal’s a deal.” Cosima pops up from the couch and pads toward the lab’s makeshift kitchen area. Throwing over her shoulder she adds, “And for some even more good news, I've got your favorite – Schnapps!”

She hears Scott groan from the couch as she approaches the fridge. She's about to call out another joke when she suddenly stops dead in her tracks. Despite her body’s stillness, her heart pounds madly against her ribs. She takes a deep breath and focuses on the small rectangular piece of paper tacked on the fridge.

Delphine's DYAD business card.

She stumbles a few feet forward and runs her fingers over the card, tracing over the “324B21” scrawled on by Delphine's hand.

She remembers when Shay showed her the card, pleaded with her to tell the truth.  Cosima had turned and left without so much as a goodbye, spending the next couple of weeks calling Delphine's cell and DYAD office phone until both mailboxes were full with her messages. Delphine never returned her calls.  

“Hey, I thought we were celebrating?” Scott says, interrupting her thoughts. He sidles up beside Cosima and follows her line of sight to the business card.

“It's been months,” Cosima whispers. “I haven't heard from her in months.”

“I know.”

“I miss her so much.”

“I know.”

They stare at the business card for a moment longer before Scott gently pulls Cosima to face him.

“We’ll find her, Cosima. Everyone's looking for her. Like Siobhan said, this is a war. Anything can happen.” He pulls her in for an awkward hug. “We’ll find her.”

Cosima untangles herself from the embrace and nods her head. Scott swears he hears a quiet sniffle from Cosima too, but before he can say anything, she's already pulling open the fridge door and ducking inside.

“Let's get drunk.”

++++

Scott and Cosima are drunk.

They sit on the floor, backs against the couch, an assortment of half-empty liquor bottles scattered around them. Their half-lidded eyes squint at the laptop screen in front of them and every so often they erupt in another loud round of giggles.

Old black and white security footage from the DYAD Institute flashes across the computer screen. Nothing scandalous; mostly just slips and falls in the DYAD hallways. There’s even footage of Doctor Leekie taking a spill and nearly pulling down one of his bio energy hobby farms.

“Where did you get this?” Cosima asks. She leans closer to the screen, nearly spilling her drink when another loud laugh escapes her.

“Hellwizard,” Scott says, fighting through a yawn. “From his security detail days at the DYAD Institute. I guess being the ‘eyes in the sky’ had its perks.”

“I didn’t realize they had cameras everywhere,” Cosima says. She lets out another snort as the scientist onscreen slips and sends his handful of test tubes crashing to the floor. “Is there any video of us? Or of… other people we know?”

Scott glances over at Cosima and shakes his head slowly. He knows exactly who she’s asking about.

“No,” he says, leaning his head back against the couch. His eyes flutter close as he tries to fight off the oncoming waves of sleep. “I asked him awhile back if he’d seen anything suspicious.”

Cosima waits from him continue, even giving him a poke when she hears his breathing turn to deep, even breaths.

“And?” she asks. “Did he?”

“No,” he says. “There was some footage missing, but Hellwizard says that happens all the time. Cameras break. Software glitches. What have you.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway,” Scott continues, fighting through another yawn, “he ended up being fired for it, along with everyone else we know when DYAD decided to get out of the clone game.”

“Oh.”

Cosima bobs her head, the alcohol and impending sleep taking its toll on her ability to speak in full sentences. Scott’s deep, even breaths soon return and she too finds herself being pulled closer and closer to sleep. She gives a few lazy blinks, just about to succumb to sleep, when her computer screen abruptly turns to black and a line of code races across the screen.

The sudden change jolts her awake and she can only watch as the command prompts cover the screen. She moves to shove Scott awake, but the code suddenly disappears and is replaced by a single repeating sentence.

YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES, WATCH CLOSELY.  
YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES, WATCH CLOSELY.  
YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES, WATCH CLOSELY.

Suddenly the repeating sentence disappears and the DYAD security footage is back on the screen. But it’s not the funny footage from before, Cosima realizes. The images move quickly, cutting from one to the next, making it difficult to make anything out. The screen turns blank for a second and then suddenly the footage is repeating itself.

Cosima leans closer and watches the images fly by again. She recognizes some of the offices, knows some of the faces. On the third loop Cosima’s blood runs cold.

 _Delphine_. Delphine is in some of the footage. And the little date in the corner says the footage is just months old.

Cosima leans even closer to the screen and watches the images loop again. Delphine with Nealon in some weird room. Delphine with Mrs. S in her DYAD office. Delphine in the DYAD parking garage. They flash by quickly.

The images cycle through once more before the screen cuts to black, a final line of code flashes across the screen, and then Hellwizard’s funny security footage from earlier is back, as if the past three minutes had never happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the lovely comments on the previous chapter! 
> 
> This is unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.

“No virus… No malware… Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary here, Cosima.”

Scott lifts his gaze from the laptop and looks over his shoulder to Cosima. He watches the woman pace behind him, her index finger lightly tapping at her chin, before returning his gaze the the laptop screen.

“So, what are you saying?” Cosima asks. She joins Scott at the lab table and – with a loud sigh – drops her elbows onto its cool surface. “That I imagined the whole thing?”

“Um,” Scott gulps, “yes?”

“Scott!” Cosima scolds, lightly smacking him on the arm. “I know what I saw.”

“We also spent the whole night drinking.” Cosima glares and Scott flinches. He raises his hands in mock surrender and takes a step back. “Mental confusion is a common symptom of alcohol intoxication.”

“I'm not mentally confused,” Cosima says between clenched teeth. She pulls the laptop toward her and presses some buttons before slamming the lid closed. Silence fills the lab and after a few minutes she repeats, “I know what I saw. Someone wanted me to see those images.”

Scott furrows his brow, following Cosima’s retreating form as she slumps down on the couch with a loud sigh.

“If I saw the code maybe I could be of more help,” he explains, “but there's nothing on the computer. Whoever accessed it didn't leave behind any fingerprints.”

“So now what?” Cosima twists on the couch so that she's facing Scott. “What am I supposed to do with old DYAD security footage?”

“At least now you know Delphine is okay.”

Cosima had been very vague with the details of the footage, only offering a generalized version of its contents. She had decided that morning she’d keep the more specific details to herself. For now at least.

“But I don't know that,” Cosima says. “That footage was from months ago.”

“Still. It's the most we've seen of Delphine since Alison's School Trustee victory dinner party.”

“Last time I saw her it felt like she knew something bad was going to happen.” Cosima feels that familiar anxiety and fear bubbling within her. She had felt it that night outside of Bubbles and she feels it now. With a deep breath, she pushes forward, “I just need someone to tell me that she's okay.”

“I'm sure she's just busy,” Scott reasons. “She's got a lot on her plate. I mean, she’s looking out for what? Five of you? Nine? Plus she’s balancing Topside and DYAD politics. It can’t be easy.”

Cosima sits up, suddenly remembering the footage of Delphine in the parking garage. If she's busy working at the DYAD Institute, then surely her car is parked in that garage, right? It's as good a place to start as any, she thinks. All roads lead to DYAD.

++++

“Why are parking garages always so creepy?”

Scott voices his thoughts aloud as he slowly maneuvers the car through the twist and turns of DYAD’s parking garage.

Gaining access to the garage had been easy enough. After telling the security guard they were there for a meeting, they had been waved right through, no questions asked.  

“I mean, why are the lights always flickering?” Scott continues aloud. He points as they pass under another flickering fluorescent. “It's like ---”

“There. There. Look,” Cosima says, interrupting Scott's thoughts. She points to a car just ahead of them. “She's here.”

Sure enough, Delphine's car sits in its usual spot. Cosima releases a heavy sigh and feels as if a weight has suddenly been lifted from her shoulders.

“See?” Scott says. “Nothing to worry about.”

They park next to the car and Cosima jumps out. Her smile falters.

Something’s not quite right.

The whole car wears a thin layer of dust and when Cosima wipes some away to peer through the window, she spots an overturned bag inside and paperwork scattered among the seats and floor. Without a second thought, she reaches for the car handle, giving it a quick tug.

It opens with any easy _pop_.

“Cosima, what are you---” Before Scott can finish his sentence, she hops inside. “Cosima!”

Cosima begins shuffling through the paperwork, thumbing through the pages when suddenly two little laminated cards slip out from the pile and land in Cosima's lap. She picks the cards up and turns them over.

DYAD employee ID cards. Cosima's and Scott's old DYAD employee ID cards.

“Think these still work?” Cosima asks, holding the cards up to Scott.

“I doubt it. Our access was probably revo--- COSIMA!”

Cosima darts from the car and marches toward the access door that leads to the labs and offices within the DYAD Institute. She throws a quick look over her shoulder to Scott and suddenly stills, her eye catching the security camera on the ceiling. The security footage image of Delphine in the parking garage flashes through her mind again, and Cosima wonders if this is not the very same spot Delphine had stood.

With a shake of her head, Cosima drops her eyes back to Scott and calls out, “You coming?”

Scott begrudgingly follows, sidling up beside her and snatching his old employee ID card from her outstretched hand. They share a quick look and then Cosima slides her ID badge over the security card reader.

Nothing.

She tries again.

Again, Nothing.

Scott swipes his card.

Nothing.

“See?” Scott says. “Our access has been revoked. We’re not getting ins---”

Suddenly the door swings open and a security guard pokes his head out.

“You trying to get in?” he asks, looking the two up and down. He looks annoyed, even more so when his eyes dart to the card in Cosima's hand. “You still using the old ID cards?”

Cosima and Scott stand frozen in place. Words escape them and they both just nod along dumbly.

“You guys call yourself scientists and yet you don't seem to understand that the old technology is not compatible with the new security system,” the guard mumbles, shaking his head. He holds out his hand, and Cosima and Scott obediently drop their cards into his outstretched palm. They can only watch as the guard holds up each card, verifying the ID picture against its owner. “Tell your supervisors to update your credentials. This is becoming a safety issue.”

Then the security guard steps aside and waves them in.

And suddenly they're back inside the DYAD Institute.

++++

“We have to be quick, Cosima,” Scott whispers. “Last time we were here, we took thousands of dollars worth of lab equipment. I don't think we're welcome.”

Scott straightens, offering an awkward smile and nod as they pass a DYAD employee.

“Delphine's office is just up here,” Cosima says, tugging Scott forward. “I just need to see---”

They turn the corner to Delphine's office and find it empty. All the lights are off. The chair is tucked neatly under the desk. And the desk’s surface is completely barren, save for a telephone and small desk clock. The office is untouched, as if no one has been here for days.

Cosima steps forward and tests the door handle, pulling it open with a _whoosh_.

“I don't think this is a good idea,” Scott warns, but he follows her inside anyway.

Cosima gives the office a once-over, letting her fingers slide over the desk’s surface. They come back dusty. She furrows her brow and blows the residue from her fingers, watching as it falls from her fingers back onto the desk. Everything is so untouched.

“Check for any sort of paperwork. Maybe an itinerary or travel confirmation. Just…,” Cosima takes a deep breath. She feels that anxiety and fear creeping up through her again. “Find _something_.”

Scott nods and together they search the office. They scour through the desk drawers and cabinets and page through the few books that line the shelves. After 15 minutes they come up empty handed.

Nothing.

“Sorry, Cosima,” Scott says. “There doesn't seem to be anything here.”

Cosima nods and slumps into the desk chair, letting her head drop to the desk’s cool surface.

“Scott,” she mumbles, “where is Delphine?”

“I don't know,” he offers honestly. “We should get going, though. It's getting late and we've definitely overstayed our welcome.”

Cosima raises her head and peeks at the desk clock.

“It's only three twenty four. We’re fine.”

Scott quirks an eyebrow and rechecks his watch. “Um, it's almost five o'clock.”

Cosima peers at the desk clock again. It still reads 3:24:21. The minutes don't move. The seconds don't move. And then it clicks.

It's her tag number – 324B21.

“Great Scott…,” Cosima whispers. She pulls the clock toward her and gives it a shake.

 It _rattles_.

“I think… I think I found something.” The words sound more like a question as they leave Cosima’s mouth. She continues to twist the clock in her hands, listening as a small piece of something rattles around inside. “Help me open it.”

Scott is by her side in an instant and together they pry the device apart. It seems to take forever, but finally the clock breaks in two. Cosima carefully tips over her half and watches as a DYAD business card and small brass key falls onto the desk with a clatter.

“Whoa,” Scott mumbles.

Cosima picks up the business card – another one of Delphine's – and notices writing on the card. It's scrawled in gold sharpie, much like the card pinned to the refrigerator back in their lab. She recognizes the handwriting immediately.

“It's from Delphine. It looks…,” Cosima leans in and studies the writing closer. “It looks like an address.”

Scott leans closer for a better look. And then the office door flies open.

“Hey! What are you two doing in here?”

Busted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to chat, I can be found at obstorylines.tumblr.com


End file.
